The Rules of Reading

The right to not read
The right to skip pages
The right to not finish
The right to reread
The right to read anything
The right to escapism
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
The right to read out loud
The right to not defend your tastes.

I have had the experience, within a single week, of having people smirk at me because I'm buying a soap opera magazine, and make faces because I'm carrying a copy of The Odyssey to my morning coffee stop. Needless to say, I hold no brief for snobbery or inverted snobbery; if I enjoy something that is enough for me, and I should not have to be defensive. Of course I don't think The Four-Story Mistake equal to The Brothers Karamazov. Full stop. Now let's move on to more interesting things.

This page will be..not a reading list, not a book review page, but a page of comments on books, reading, genres, even movies, if the spirit moves me. There will not be a schedule for updates. The most recent entries will be at the top.

The list above is also apparently called the Reader's Bill of Rights. I found it on posted on a listserv, but have been unable to track down its source.

4/28/08 Something different.. though I won't say 'guilty pleasure.' Re-read the introduction to this page to learn my feelings about 'having' to feel guilty about what I read!

It's manga. I read manga.

I think it started with starting up on Netflix. I watched a number of anime movies and series. After I watched Fullmetal Alchemist, I browsed through its forum on Television withoiut Pity, and found that there was a continuing FMA manga series, the source of the anime. I don't think that was the first manga I read, though. The first series I read might have been The Wallflower. (I can't be considered hardcore: I don't use - or know - Japanese manga titles, heh.)

My favorite short series is Antique Bakery (vour volumes). I'm currently collecting the longer series Nodame Cantabile and Tramps Like Us. Thesee are sometimes categorized as josei, for women in their 20s and above, as opposed to shojo for teenaged girls . The categories are loose, however.. there is overlap. In Nodame Cantabile, for example, the characters are in the last years of a music academy/college. In Antique Bakery there are no major female characters. It's set in a bakery, and the food descriptions make me hungry! Tramps Like Us is about a woman who adopts a young man as a 'pet' while struggling with her own insecurities at work, and with a man who becomes her boyfriend.

3/7/08 Peeking in during my busy time of year. I can report that I read The Leopard, by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Definitely something of a classic. I gave up on Vivian Gray - remember I don't have to finish a book if I don't want to! I'm going to order The Men in a Boat from the library.. well, not now, I have enough in my TBR stack.

12/31/07 I got sidelined from my 'classics, minor classics, curiosities' list -- I'm on biographies again, and history. Mary Wesley, Gwen Raverat, Jennie Churchill. The 16th c. Verney family of Buckinghamshire. A cultural history of Russia. Vivian Gray will have to wait a bit.

I've also been thinking about reading books that I read too young. I was given a 'great books' list when I was about 17, and read almost all of them. (I don't mean Aristotle etc., but novels.) Some of the books I read too young? Moby Dick. The Scarlet Letter. The Sound and the Fury. Lots of Conrad.

But to start out, I've ordered a book that I did not read too early, but want to read again after all these years: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

11/27/07 I was starting to do one classic a year, right? Lately I've been speeding up. First Lavengro, then On the Road. Now I have a list of minor classics, or curiosities, that I intend to read.

1) I just read A High Wind in Jamaica (now I want ot see how faithful the movie was!).

2) Waiting at home for me is Disraeli' s Vivian Gray, a potboiler he was ashamed of in later years. I'm hoping I enjoy it!

3) The Maltese Falcon. I haven't read any Hammett or Chandler.

And, someday, The Anatomy of Melancholy--???? We'll see. :-)

10/7/07 I recently did one of those .. well, they are called 'memes', half way between a game and a questionnaire. This one was about books that I had read or hadn't, or hadn't been able to finish, or really disliked. The main thing it showed me, as these lists always do, is that I haen't yet read Ulysses or Catch-22. I will now admit that I read On the Road recently, and didn't really like it. It was one of those books where I thought, oh yes, this could be interesting to study, if I wanted to study it, but I'm reading it for enjoyment, so.... I found myself bored, overall.

Here's a book that gripped me: The Lost: A Search for Six Among Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn. Genealogical detective work at its finest, an oh, the poignant sense of loss when you think of people in your own life that you could have known but only barely missed.

8/28/07 I seem to have started (re)reading biographies: Claire Tomalin's Katherine Mansfield, A Secret LIfe, and Judith Flanders' Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin. So, which way should I go? I could re-read other Tomalin biographies (Austen, Pepys...), or go on a Pre-Raphaelite orgy (such a decorous orgy!). I have plenty of books on hand, in any event. Hmm... which way shall I go?

(Come to think of it, with Rossetti the orgy wouldn't be decorous. Burne-Jones, yes. :-) )

6/27/07 I'm back from a three-week vacation, and, as usual, travel has prompted some reading plans. This time I traveled (and camped) in Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington.

First this prompts rereads of a two books: Son of the Morning Star (Custer and Little Bighorn) by Evan S. Connell, and Undaunted Courage (Lewis & Clark) by Stephen Ambrose.

Other topics (books not yet chosen) include the Marquis De Mores, the Grand Coulee Dam, and the prehistoric flood that created Dry Falls, and the coulees and 'channeled scabland' of central and eastern Washington.

I also find myself wondering where I had run into the Marquis in my travel lit reading. He was killed by the Tuaregs in the Sahara, did I read about those dusty* (millions of) acres and...? Hmm. I thought it was in South America, something about searching for Eldorado, the Orinoco, etc. Guess not. Perhaps it was Vietnam.

*well, ok, sandy

5/17/07 I just did a reread of The Raj Quartet, which was made into a television miniseries as The Jewel in the Crown. I remember being extremely depressed by one section, so I expected to read only the first novel before my June vacation. However, the book was so compelling that before I knew it I had read all four!

I give Paul Scott full points for the breadth of his vision, for compelling characters and an excellent overarching plot. On the other hand, his prose can be knotted and preachy. At times he describes movements in a ridiculous blow-by-blow manner. For instance, instead of saying someone had to half-climb over luggage to get out of a train compartment, he tells where each foot and hand had to be place. I wince.

Still, I recommend The Raj Quartet. And the miniseries. (Guy Perron! My favorite character.)

1/22/07 I just finished watching the anime series Gankutsuou, which was inspired by Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. I am thinking of rereading The Count, partly to see where the two stories diverge!

A friend of mine read the Dumas novel a few years ago, in a new translation... in fact, the only edition that has been published in enough of the entire novel. All others have been abridged. She thought it was so terrific she wanted to write the translator a fan letter!

The only other classic I remember reading in abridged form was War and Peace, as a teenager. I've since read the un abridged version, and much prefer it. Yeah. A bit longer, but --!

In another category altogether are the Readers Digest Condensed Books that lined my parents shelves when I was a child. These were best sellers, although I remember reading at least one classic of its genre in condensed book form: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. There were others, I'm sure... Thornton Wilder and the like. (I'll admit to feeling a little nostalgic when I see a condensed book!)

11/28/06 I recently read Night Watch, by Sarah Waters, a novel of the WWII English home front. I enjoyed it very much -- and scarfed it down, as the saying goes. I was delighted to that the author included a bibliography: three pages of books that she used while doing research for the novel. (She also used films, photographs, and maps.) Because of her subject matter, the books include works on prisons, lesbian life during the '30s and 40s, and Christian Science, as well as on simply coping during wartime.

Of course I've decided to search for some of these books. Naturally!

I've read a few already: diaries and letters of Barbara Pym, A Pacifist's War by Frances Partridge, and Elizabeth Jane Howard's memoir, Slipstream. I'm fairly certain I've read a book of Denton Welch's letters... but if I did, it was long enough ago that I could read them again.

So far I've ordered the memoir Spam Tomorrow. Extra points for all who get the 'Alice' reference!

(As usual, I find myself wondering if it is more insulting to assume people do know something, or don't. Hmm... no clear answer on that.)

9/24/06 I spent a couple of weeks in August reading The Forsyte Saga. Reading? Inhaling. Very entertaining. I read it years ago, but decided to read it again after renting the recent series from Netflix.

That got me to thinking about dramatizations. What books have I read only after seeing the miniseries versions? I can think only of The Jewel in the Crown, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I'm pretty sure that I had read I, Claudius before the series was aired.

6/22/06 I recently bought Nancy Pearl's Book Lust, a 'list of books' she recommends, by A-F categories. I started writing in the book, either marking a 'Yes!' or jotting down books I would select instead of what Ms. Pearl had chosen. (This is very unusual, I rarely write in books.)

Last night I gave members of my book group an annotated list to supplement Book Lust. Here is one suggestion:

I recommend Frances Partridge's diaries, Vanessa Bell by Frances Spalding, and Deceived by Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood by Angelica Garnett. These are to 'companion' the diaries and letters of Virginia Woolf, as well as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.

And now I learn there is a second volume of Book Lust!

5/9/06 I'm trying. I'm really trying, but Lavengro may defeat me.

Lavengro, by George H. Borrow, is my current 'classic' read. (Believe me, it's a minor classic.) I've read 200 pages - out of 550 or so... do I have to go ooooon? (consider that a mournful hoot) I was intrigued by Borrow's study of the English gypsies and their language, but... Sigh. There may be more about his travels in Romany Rye, Lavengro's sequel, but I can't imagine my picking something else by Borrow.

I may give up . the first time in my classics read! even though I made it through Tristram Shandy and The Golden Bowl!) Technically, by the Rule of 100 I can stop. (i.e., 100 - your current age = # of pages you must read before abandoning the book) I will sigh again.

3/15/06 It goes like this: I read something.. anything.. well, probably a biography or history. The mention of a person, or a group, sets me off. Suddenly I have a list of six or seven books to seek out: I'm bingeing on books.

This time stated with May and Amy by Josceline Dimbleby. This is the story of the author's great-grandmother (May) and great aunt (Amy). May was the final muse of the Pre-Raphelite painter Edward Burne-Jones. Along the way, it was mentioned that May met Burne-Jones though one of his earlier muses, Frances Horner, a member of 'the Souls.'

That started me off, not reading about the Pre-Raphaelites (always an interest) but about the Souls. This was a group of mostly aristocratic men and women in the late 19th century, including Arthur Balfour and George Curzon. The tragedy of the Souls was that so many of their sons died in WWI.

Books which followed: Unquiet Souls by Angela Lambert; The Children of the Souls byJeanne Mackenzie (Inter-Library Loan) and Diana Cooper by Philip Ziegler. (Celebrated beauty Lady Diana (Manners) Cooper was a famous member of the children of the Souls, the Coterie.) I also have a biography of Lord Curzon at hand.

Now that I think of it, there's a third generation: John Julius Norwich (see below) - he's the son of Lady Diana and Duff Cooper. Norwich is his title. I wonder if he has written his memoirs?

12/29/05 I am about halfway through The Daisy Chain by Charlotte M. Yonge. This novel has been mentioned more times than I can count, in English girls school books. It's ... long! More to the point, it's a Victorian family novel .. eleven motherless children, would you believe. I'm enjoying it now, though it was a slow start

I am amused by the two essays in the Virago edition of The Daisy Chain. Both were written in the late 1980s, but they couldn't be more different. The first is an academic, feminist analysis of the novel. The second includes this sentence: "The Daisy Chain has been a life-long companion and a comforter to me in troubles great and small." Essayist #1 would never write such a sentence! :-)

11/22/05 I had a great time in Malta and Italy, and how inspiring: I came back wanting to read more and more on Roman history and the Norman presence in Southern Italy and Sicily. But... there is too much non-fiction in my TBR pile. So? Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. I read it long ago and (gasp!) got rid of it at some point. Even before I went to Italy I ordered another copy.

9/28//05 I am preparing for a trip to Malta and Italy, so reading is a bit.. well, I'm finding it hard to concentrate! I'm using this opportunity to reread all of the Marlow books by Antonia Forest. If you scroll down you'll find more than a few mentions of her. :-)

My big plan was to reread the two-in-one volume of The Normans in Sicily by John Julius Norwich, but it's been relegated to 'after I get back' reading.

In fact, I have quite the TBR pile for my return. Among other things, there awaits The Daisy Chain by Charlotte L. Yonge ... and maybe the manga I've ordered will arrive while I'm gone. Just think, they'll be waiting for me, sitting coyly sealed in their boxes, rated M for Mature. LOL I won't think about that sentence too much longer!

Oh, a PS on the Forest-and-Thackeray discussion mentioned below. The Thac. novel Nicola loved in Attic Term was Henry Esmond. I haven't read that one yet. Hmm... I've just gone back to correct my spelling of that William Makepeace fellow's name, how embarrassing.

7/25/05 More on George R. R. Martin, who was mentioned lo!, in my first entry here. A Feast For Crows is finally slated for publication, in November. It is actually.. well, half a book. This fourth volume of A Song of Ice and Fire got so long that it has been split into two.

One of my listservs is rereading the first four books. I started with them, and zipped ahead. Such satisfying books.

5/26/05 Trilby was weird. Very weird. I'll admit the weirdest thing about it was its stunningly matter-of-fact anti-semitism. I'm glad I read it, but I won't put it on any lists of favorite books.

I'm still doing Pilgrim's Progress in dribs and drabs. What next on my classics list? Classic is an elastic term. :-) I'm thinking of Lavengro, by George H. Borrow, or something by Tobias Smollett.

3/25/05 A book to recommend! The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber. It is 900 pages long, and I didn't skip, didn't skim.. and I didn't feel that it was padded.

Sugar, a 19-year old prostitute, is taken into keeping by the seemingly hapless son of a perfume/cosmetics manufacturer. Things do not go exactly as she expects. No, it isn't a romance novel, not in the slightest - though there is love in its varieties.

I will say that the narrator takes some getting used to.. quite flip on occasion. Think Thackeray in the 21st century, writing about 1875. :-)

2/4/05 I have two classic reads planned for this year. One is Pilgrim's Progress. I know a bit about Bunyan's history.. and also how important he was to America of an earlier age. Louisa May Alcott wrote of how she and her sisters stayed Pilgrim's Progress as a play. Also, it is important in a Miles Vorkasigan novella by Lois McMaster Bujold, though not everyone will recognize it (I did).

The second classic, which I just ordered from the university library, is Trilby, by George DuMaurier. I've heard about this for years, both as a book and as a cultural connection to Punch, Gerald DuMaurier, Peter Pan, and Rebecca. Connect the dots. :-)

Of course, it is known best now for providing the trilby hat (the title character is a young Miss Trilby), and 'svengali' -- the name of the evil mesmerist who controls her. Now, why the hat? Perhaps the novel was staged, and they used a particular kind of hat? Like the deerstalker and cape for Sherlock Holmes -- not in the original stories by Doyle.

11/24/04 I had a bit of a down period recently, when I was slogging through multiple re-reads and not very interested in anything. Suddenly, I have a pile of library books! Automat, about the .. umm, the automat restaurants once of New York and Philadelphia. Anna Quindlen's Imagined London, a reread of Louisa May Alcott, a big English historical novel, another scholarly book on Tolkien. Now the question is how to manage it all!

8/26/04 Two items of business. Alas, I find I can only give Pendennis a 'moderately enjoyed' on my list of 'rate the classics.' It's just too long! I find that a satire of a thousand pages just...drags, whereas I might feel a dramatic novel that long is compelling. War and Peace, anyone?

Secondly, Twenty Gallant Horses is a bit of a mystery. I instantly recognized the writing, and knew that the book I remembered was indeed by C. W. Anderson. But this book doesn't include Whirlaway, Nassau, Omaha -- and I know I read about them, for otherwise, how would I know their names? I think that Anderson repeated stories in a number of books... so I have still need to track down the right one. As it stands now, though, Twenty Gallant Horses is a lovely book that I'm glad to own.

7/28/04 I have been looking for a book for some time.. and I hope I have found it. When I was a horse-crazy teenager I read a book about American racehorses, one chapter per horse. I remember of course my favorite, Man o' War (the greatest! the greatest!), but also Citation, Whirlaway, and many others (yes, including War Admiral and Seabiscuit). Is it possible that this is Twenty Gallant Horses, by C. W. Anderson? I'll order it, in hopes. This is probably the final book in my 'finding the childhood favorites' obsession. If it's the wrong book.. the search will continue.

5/28/04 I find that I am drawn to novels set in Venice, these days. It isn't about other cities that I enjoy (London, New York, Paris) - what is it about Venice? Such a mysterious city..and absolutely unique.

If you like to read mystery novels, I suggest those by Donna Leona or Michael Dibdin. You can find an overview of the city, its culture and history, in The World of Venice by James Morris (Jan, in the revised edition). For a one-volume history, try A History of Venice, by John Julius Norwich (moving on to his histories of Byzantium, and of the Normans in Italy, perhaps?).

Recent reads that I recommend: A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Basi, about an American woman who marries a Venetian, The Floating Book by Michelle Lovric, a historical novel centered around German printers of the age just after Gutenberg, and the rediscovery and printing of Catullus.

Finally, there is Venice, Lion City by Garry Wills, a fascinating overview of Venice's "corporate religion" and sense of self, as illustrated in its art and architecture.

4/27/04 Here is how I rate my recent 'classic' reads, purely for enjoyment (or the lack thereof):

I'm hoping to put Pendennis at the top of the list. But it's too heavy to carry it to work! How will I finish it?

3/3/04 One of the books on my "special" shelf is The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso. I know several people who feel it is a book to 'dip into', but I find it quite involving and can read long stretches at a sitting. :-) It is "about" mythology, you could say, but it isn't "about" mythology in the usual way. Calasso tells the story of major myths in version after version, not trying to label one "correct" version, but allowing repetition to lead the reader to discover an inner truth about the myth's origins and meaning. I find the style lovely, the technique quite hypnotic, the effect fascinating.

2/4/04 Someone asked me if I ever finished Tristram Shandy . I did! I can't say that I'll read it again .. though I'm glad I made the effort. Let's just call it strange. That should cover a lot!

My "classics" list for the year has expanded: I've added Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith. I've thought about reading it for years, probably because of the cool title. Of such things are decisions made! It is significantly shorter than Pendennis , but, not to worry, I did check both books out from the university library.

I had some difficulty finding Pendennis in one volume - it's huge!

Naturally I am not yet reading a classic.. or am I? I am reading Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh, another huge book that was originally published in multiple volumes. Did Thackeray win a Hugo? Or, how about the Nebula? :-)

12/24/03 I forgot to mention earlier this fall that I was able to find my own copy of my first "special" book, Crazy Quilt , which I mention below. I was happy to find via abeboks that there was a copy available at a used bookstore here in Minneapolis. I visited the store "just to check out the copy quality"--!

Next on my list is Thackeray: Pendennis . Why, I'm not sure, except Nicola Marlow liked it! Now, in the same (Antonia Forest) book, Nicola's teacher says those who don't like Dickens like Pendennis . Is the reverse also true? I like Dickens, will I dislike this book? Will I find that the fearsome Miss Cromwell was mistaken?

11/29/03 News flash: I'm on my fourth read of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels.

I was going to read them...slowly, pacing myself. Well, that didn't work! It didn't help that Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was recently released.

Despite having M&C (the first book) in its title, the film is mostly a combination of the 10th (The Far Side of the World) and the fifth (Desolation Island) with lots of bits from other POB books. But it doesn't matter, it's a lovely movie, true to the novels in spirit. I adore Stephen Maturin, and that hasn't changed. But I'll admit that Russell Crowe has taken his place as "my" Jack, as in his portrayal I am able to see both Jack's charisma and his endearing silliness.

I know for a fact that I'm not only one trying hard to keep a straight face when Jack first asks Stephen about weevils...ha!...ha! (And Stephen's quote from Alexander Pope,"he that would pun, would pick a pocket" is straight from the book)

10/16/03 One of my current reads is an excellent biography of W. C. Fields. Hollywood, from its beginnings through the "Golden Era" is one of my casual interests. I like a good star biography, but I do mean a good one, not a trashy once-over. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend biographies of Louise Brooks, Mabel Normand, Gary Cooper, William Powell..and many more (ask for suggestions - go ahead, I dare you!)

I particularly recommend the poignant Dark Star, about silent screen star John Gilbert, by his daughter Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, and A Private View by Irene Mayer Selznick, the daughter of MGM boss Louis B. Mayer and wife of maverick producer David O. Selznick.

For an overview of the studio system try Ethan Mordden's The Hollywood Studios: House Style in the Golden Age of the Movies. And finally, I recommend City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s , a very readable cultural history by Otto Friedrich.

9/10/03 During my twenties I discovered many classic mystery novels: Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Josephine Tey - and Dorothy Sayers. I was highly amused to find the order that I read Sayers. How did I stay the course? :-)

First I read The Nine Tailors. OK, it's very good, but it isn't sparkling. Next: Five Red Herrings. What??!! The timetables - the Scottish dialect, overdone perhaps - little Bunter - clunky, clunky -- And I went on to another Sayers? Murder Must Advertise - enjoyed that, it would encourage me to try yet again.

Gaudy Night: ah, yes. There I was hooked - this book I adore. Mind you, there were two "Harriet" novels before this. Luckily, Sayers provides "backstory", as we call it now, enough for understanding - and to whet my appetite.

Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Have His Carcase -- ok, another Harriet book, but we still don't see their first meeting. Whose Body - the first Lord Peter, he's a little lightweight here, isn't he? Unnatural Death , Clouds of Witness , Busman's Honeymoon - heavens, they're married already! - oh - Strong Poison , well finally they meet. He saves her from hanging, proposes marriage, and is turned down.

I seem have to have read them all not backwards, but inside out!

8/12/03 Recently I found a book list that I kept between the ages of... hmm, twenty and twenty-nine. Nowadays I keep track of books read monthly, but with this list I was much more erratic. There are date headings occasionally, showing that the books must have been read during such-and-such quarter at college, or during the summer, and the like.

What juxtapositions I find! Star Trek: Log One and The Henry James Reader . Beau Geste and To The Lighthouse. A History of Historical Writing and a biography of Mick Jagger. Much medieval and ancient history, as that was my thing, and a surprising amount of "classics", although I had already done my complete reading of Thomas Hardy's novels (I may have missed one or two early ones). And along with that, some quite embarrassing entries.. well, if you've heard of John Norman, you'll know what I mean. (Does it help if I say that I used to get really angry reading his books?) :-)

Oh and here I gulp down A Dance to the Music of Time, here I find all the Narnia books, and here I read Albert Speer's memoirs and go on a binge on WWII and Nazism.

And guess what? I read Middlemarch! You could have knocked me over with a spoon! Well, as you can see, it made no impression on me and came to me at a better time, later. :-)

7/7/03 A few days ago I finished reading The Silmarillion aloud. I mentioned below that the Sil is wonderful if you can get past the first fifty pages. I started reading it aloud simply to do that - to get past the "creation of the universe" and the naming of the Valar and their particular spheres of influence. Then I just kept going!

Years ago, I read The Lord of the Rings to my grandmother. I can't why I suggested it, unless it was because I thought she wouldn't read it otherwise! It took about six weeks. (note: not including the appendixes - I had a one-volume edition with only the Aragorn/Arwen appendix)

We started doing three chapters a day, which was as much as my voice could take. I found, however, that "plot arcs" often lasted about four chapters, so as my voice grew stronger we read each day until the natural climax of the arc.

I remember getting all choked up in the usual places, which amused my grandmother, I think. :-) It pleased me once when I arrived for the daily reading, to find that my grandmother had read ahead! I pretended to be annoyed, and insisted on starting again where we had stopped. :-)

5/8/03 How did I do? I returned the Byatt to the library, though I'll read it later, I'm sure. The Hobb fantasy - couldn't get into it, so I didn't try (so many books, so little time). I haven't touched Basham in a month, but.. I think I've read everything else below.

Oh, I'm still reading The Bad Man of the West, though I'm nearly done. This was a favorite book when I was a teenager -- I read my brother's tattered copy. I had my favorite outlaw (Sam Bass). I invented a "union for outlaws" and wrote a sample newsletter for it! "The Bullet", at that!, with an editorial essay, news items, and want ads. It was, umm, whimsical. Obviously a union of bad men would not be asking for higher wages, but for things like..no feuds among members, a network of safe houses, improving the breeding stock of their horses, and apprenticeships. Like I said, whimsical -- warped! :-) I did end up relatively normal, though, no lasting damage..I think.

4/1/03 I seem to have gotten in over my head. Here are the books I own that I'm currently (supposedly) reading or rereading: The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp, Captain Anne by Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Black Maria by Diana Wynne Jones, The Bad Man of the West by George Hendricks. (The first two are armchair/living room books, the last two are bedside reading.) Then there's my long-term read (borrowed from a friend) Basham's The Wonder That Was India.

April reading group: short stories by Alice Munro, taken out from the library -- haven't started. I just finished a Charles Todd "Inspector Rutledge" mystery, and saw that his newest is available at the library, so it's on order. Also from the library, two books that were recommended to me, one about life on an olive farm in France, the other a fantasy novel, and, while we're at it, a Robin Hobb fantasy novel, the latest in a series. On the way past to the library checkout I saw A.S. Byatt.. Now when do I think I'll have time to read it?

For, you see, what I am really reading is The Return of the Shadow, volume 6 in The History of Middle-Earth. Volumes 6-9 of this series are J.R.R. Tolkien's earliest versions and revisions of The Lord of the Rings.

I wonder, of all the other books, what ones I'll actually read? Or if I read them, how long will they take? Despite this being April 1st, this is not a joke!

2/26/03 The summer I was 15, my family went to Britain for a three-week vacation. Near the end of our stay we were in Penzance, and I wasn't feeling very well. I decided to buy a book and retreat to the bed-and-breakfast to recuperate, while everyone else went sightseeing. I bought a one-volume paperback of The Lord of the Rings.

I read and read and read and read - I think I read it in three or four days. Is it possible? I read on the train back to London, and the night train from London to Glasgow, and probably on the bus to Prestwick, and while sitting in the airport. By the time I was on the plane I had finished, and was writing very bad, clueless, derivative poetry - oh, la!

This winter I've been on a bit of a Tolkien binge. I reread the trilogy, then The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales. I do say that with The Silmarillion, if you can get through the first fifty pages you'll find it's pretty wonderful.

1/6/03 I have a short-term goal this year: to read Gotham - that history of New York I mentioned earlier - before I go to New York in late February. It's over 1200 pages long! I'm at about page 230... (brooding silence)... It's enjoyable, but -- long.

Last year I think I did pretty well, reading both The Golden Bowl and Middlemarch :-) My next first-time read of a classic may turn out to be Tristram Shandy.

I have also started to reread the fantasy novels of P.C. Hodgell, and fell right into God Stalk - having a great time, wish you were reading it too. :-) Hodgell is very inventive; her characters are engaging and she has created a great cosmography / back-story. BTW, she received her Ph.D. in The Department Wot I Work In.

11/11/02 I am reading Garth Nix's Lirael, and thought I should mention that both it and his earlier Sabriel are quite wonderful! These are "YA" fantasy novels with an interesting take on the "wizard apprentice" theme, and a magic more complicated and dangerous than most, not easily controlled. I'm looking forward to the next book, rounding out the trilogy. Check for more information here .

8/8/02 Some time ago I was reminded of the game "Desert Island Books." If you were on a desert island, and were given the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, what other ten books would you choose to take along? This doesn't include books like "Survival Guide to Desert Islands" - no cheap jokes allowed!

Here are mine - or a start:

The other three are more difficult. Maybe The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (see my Antarctica page!), or Peter Ackroyd's biography of London. If I take a Dorothy Dunnett novel it would have to be The Game of Kings, the first, longest, and most difficult of the Lymond Chronicles, or King Hereafter, about Thorfinn/Macbeth. A nice long novel by Trollope -- or maybe The Master of Hestviken because I have it in one volume: four-in-one historical novels by Sigrid Undset.

And there are quibbles, of course. I could take The Silmarillion instead of LOTR because I've "only" read it twice :-), but..I think I won't. If I could choose what Jane Austen novels could be in one volume they would be Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion, but I don't think the P&P would be printed with the other two -- chronology rules.

So..that's my list for now!

7/22/02 I finished Middlemarch and enjoyed it! I put quite a lot of effort into getting just the right edition: a trade paperback edition, with just the right print and margins. These things matter.

I can now announce success: I have my own copy of The Long White Month! I hadn't been checking Advanced Book Exchange regularly, it was just chance that one day I logged on and found two copies available. Several people have emailed me about finding their own copies of the book: keep trying. I will admit, however, that the price has gone up from when my brother bought his copy. Someone must have realized that it's rare. :-)

4/3/02 I finished The Golden Bowl in March! Here is what I reported to members of the JeremyNortham listserv (who probably mostly don't care): "The only parts that really zipped along (can you say that about Henry James?) were those parts with Fanny and Bob Assingham -- where they talked about what was going on. Really, you can get the plot highlights by flipping through the novel and finding those three or four places where there are pages with lots of quotation marks -- actual conversation instead of James' narration! These parts are the masquerade ball, the house party near Gloucester (where some king was buried...), the breaking of the bowl (Fanny and Maggie), and near the end (Charlotte and Maggie).

In these parts with direct speech, the dialogue went straight into the movie, I recognized lots of it. It was all the in-between parts where the screenwriter had to wrote Jamesian dialogue herself!"

My resolution is to read a book from those boxes (actually three stacked box-tops) as one of my three current reads at any time. Get it? Right now I am rereading Mary Wesley's books and Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar, and I'm reading two new purchases: a travel memoir called Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, and Lindsay Davis' most recent Falco mystery (ordered from England!). So along with those, I am reading the second volume of Sir Steven Runciman's history of the Crusades, which has been sitting in my TBR file for some time.

Books in my TBR boxes fit into several categories. There are books I've read already but only recently purchased, such as the Runciman, a biography of Elizabeth I, Losing Nelson by Barry Unsworth, and a book about a famous Oklahoma ranch called The Real Wild West. Then there are the thick history books that are so attractive and, actually, interesting, but which I just have not gotten into yet: Gotham (New York City), Empire Express (the transcontinental railroad), The Lives of the Poets, and a big book on the history of food preparation, eating, and society. Oh and, err, when I moved I stopped reading The Golden Bowl. I think I'd better get back into it!

As for resolutions, will this be the year I finally read Middlemarch?

12/10/01 I've been in a bit of a "doldrums" mood lately, so imagine my pleasure when I started reading Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography : I found it just what I need, a big long book on a subject I like, brightly paced and full of fascinating detail. Right now I'm reading about London's latrines and waste management through the ages - more gripping than you might think!

Antonia Forest's Marlow series is also keeping me afloat, as is the regular viewing of David Strathairn movies. Who he? Brilliant actor, he. For your amusement, check out this idiosyncratic little tribute . Then go rent one of his movies!

11/5/01 Some years ago I noticed one thing cropping up in biographies of early- to mid- 20th century British writers. A posed family group would almost invariably include a handsome, serious young man in his late teens or early twenties, and the caption would name Julian, Bevis, Cyril or the like, the eldest son, who died in World War I.

The poignancy of these photographs reminds me of another book on my "special" shelf: J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, by Andrew Birkin. This beautiful book is out of print, but very worth hunting down at a library. Its subject is the relationship of Barrie with the five Llewellyn-Davies boys, who in some respects inspired both Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.

The story is laced with tragedy, and illustrated with photographs of the most heartbreaking poignancy, lacrimae rerum: "the tears of things" so long ago. I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't afraid to be moved. You will never forget it.

9/5/01 - Welcome to the Fall! I had no chance (or took no chance) to update this page in July or August since I've spent the past six weeks or so moving. Or, rather, it was The Move: Preparation, Move, and Aftermath. I'm still dealing with the aftermath. I moved only next door, but still I had to box things. Those things included many, many books.

The move has given me the opportunity to give away many books, and to find books that I had mislaid, e.g. reuniting books in a trilogy :-). Oddly enough, I found the memoir People Who Say Goodbye , mentioned earlier, and am rereading it. I can report that the author is P.Y. Betts.

I had a good time filling my bookcases, especially my tall, five-shelf bookcase, and my bedroom bookcase of "comfort reading" and guilty pleasures. Now I need two more equally large bookcases. But today my new chair will be delivered, so I'll finally have somewhere to sit comfortably and read!

6/20/01 - This month, among the usual mix of things, I am reading The Golden Bowl -- two pages at a time! If you try to read it quickly, for plot.. horrors! But I know the plot, having seen the recent movie, umm, several times, so I can afford to take my time. When read slowly (or even aloud), James can be quite witty. He has a dry humor, which is most effective when couched in sentences of grand pomposity: the very pomposity of his phrasing makes it funnier. I do find myself wondering, though, after one of James' two-(long)-sentence paragraphs, "Now... what is he saying the Prince feels?" Double negatives lurk, a positive in one clause, a negative in another. Hmm. Deciphering this an be entertaining - if I have patience enough to keep reading slowly!

5/31/01 - While waiting in line for a free lunch today a friend and I talked about what "classics" we haven't read yet -- or finished. I have tried twice to read Middlemarch, and though I know people who adore it, I found it very heavy going. Third time's a charm? We'll see. I'd like to try Tristram Shandy, partly because it's the kind I might find difficult: one grand series of digressions.

I read Moby Dick when I was a college freshman, and I'd like to see if I'd get more out of it the second time. When I was eleven or so I tried Wuthering Heights but couldn't make it past the Yorkshire dialect in the framing story. In my teens I did finish it and was fascinated by Heathcliff -- now I think he's a psychopath! (Yes, even in Ralph Fiennes' portrayal. I can do without vengeance played out on an innocent next generation.)

4/18/01 - Here are the books I am reading this week*: Crucible of War by Fred Anderson, on the French & Indian War, River-Horse (crossing America by boat with William Least Heat-Moon), and The Queen's Conjurer, a biography of John Dee by Benjamin Woolley.

I alternate the books, more or less, and liven things up by reading shorter books as well: rereading Megan Lindholm's Ki and Vandien trilogy, reading a new Regency Romance or fantasy novel. And I've been watching Survivor!

*ok, not just this week for Crucible - more like a month! I did just start the other two, however.

3/24/01 - I can't claim to remember my first favorite book, as it was probably a Little Golden Book that I asked my parents to read me over and over again! But I do remember the first book I took out of the library: the classic, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. We had no public library in our small small town, so one summer when I was four or five we had a Bookmobile, and I found Mike and his friend. Amazing! Later in my childhood the school library opened an evening or two a week. This was exciting - imagine going into a quiet school in the evening, and the only room that was open and busy was the very best room of all.

My first "special book" was Crazy Quilt, the Circus Pony , which I read in the third grade. The story was not actually about the circus, but about a family of circus performers who take care of Crazy Quilt, and a few other animals while they "winter." The main human characters are a couple of children who love to be around the animals when they (the animals) are not in "work" mode. As an adult I found that the Minneapolis library has one copy of this book, available for use in the library only. It was quite something to sit in the children's department paging through the book, which had been brought out (up?) from the stacks.

3/11/01 - Recently I started collecting an author that is new to me: Antonia Forest. The Marlow family stories are centered in a girls boarding school, with additional books set during holidays when the family has various adventures. The books are fairly complex, emotionally, and turn various stereotypes on end - not just the "jolly-hockey-sticks" kind of tales.

Alas, these books are very hard to find. Only the first book Autumn Term is in print, and only in the UK. I have tracked down the other "term" books through on-line used book search services. The holiday books are even harder to find! So far I've been able to track down only one - through InterLibrary Loan. You can find more information about the books, and the reclusive Ms. Forest, here.

2/12/01 - I thought I should give an update on a couple of things mentioned earlier. One is that my brother did finally find a copy of The Long White Month of his own. (It took daily checking of on-line sources, but it finally paid off.)

Also, my first entry on this page mentioned my impatient wait for the paperback edition of George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings. In the meantime, the third in Martin's series, A Storm of Swords was published in England. I just couldn't bear the wait for it to be published hardback in the U.S. -- I ordered it in trade paperback from England! It was worth it (she chortles). I did this again, but accidentally, when I ordered the two most recent Lindsey Davis "Falco" mysteries from the UK. One was mass market...but sir, I did not know the other was a trade paperback -- ! (One Virgin Too Many and Ode To a Banker, by the way.)

1/4/01 - OK, for those of you who get sidetracked in the introduction to this page, here's something about The Four-Story Mistake! FSM is the second in a series of books by Elizabeth Enright about the Melendy family. The Melendy books are normally considered a trilogy -- The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, and Then There Were Five, with Spiderweb for Two (a semi-mystery) as a coda.

In The Saturdays we meet the four Melendy children: Mona (actress), Rush (pianist), Randy (for Miranda - sorry UK readers! - artist and dancer), and Oliver (dogged little boy). They live with their widowed father, and housekeeper Cuffy, in New York City during World War II. Frustrated because their allowances (a quarter for the older three and a dime for Oliver) don't go very far, they form the Saturday Club: they "pool their resources" and each week one of them gets to spend a dollar for the day. In the early 40s, this went a long way!: Rush goes to the opera, Mona gets her hair cut and styled -- ! They each have adventures, and make new friends, human and animal.

In The Four-Story Mistake, the family movies to the country. The title comes from the name of their house, which was supposed to have four stories - but the money ran out before the fourth was built, so a cupola was perched up on top instead. The story involves much home front activity: a scrap drive, problems with sugar rationing, raising money to buy a war bond, and so on. This continues in Then There Were Five, which finds them taking an interest in a lonely boy raised by his abusive cousin. Perhaps the title will tell you that there is a happy ending!

This is definitely some of my "comfort reading." I find the Melendy series to be charming and full of incident, and the illustrations by the author are charming as well. WWII seems so near and yet so far away.

Enright has another set of (two) books that are among my favorites. More on that some other time!

10/10/00 - Another first: a note on Viewing! This is to recommend The Winslow Boy, a film by David Mamet, based on a play by Terrance Rattigan. It was the first video I rented after a year-long embargo and a change to a new (better) video store. I loved the movie and was instantly smitten with Jeremy Northam! I found a review in the on-line archives of Roger Ebert that describes the movie's attractions marvelously. Besides being a very positive review it is wonderfully written. In a way, Ebert explains much of the attraction that Georgette Heyer's Regency romances have for both men and women. Do take a look. And check my links page for more on Mr. Northam!

9/14/00 - "The Special Shelf" - first one up, The Golden Oriole, by Raleigh Trevelyan. This is a long, very satisfying read - a history of one family's involvement in British Indian history. Perusing the family trees in this book helped me understand the British concept of "connections", the relatives of your relatives, in-laws of your in-laws, a whole social web that goes beyond those who are strictly related to you. "Connections" of Trevelyan died at Cawnpore and Lucknow - this is a book of understanding, not excuses. It combines history, memoir and travel literature to great effect.

8/22/00 - I am on a listserv or two that wander into off-topic territory and discuss "other books" the listmembers like. On one list in particular I haven't contributed to these OT threads, because my opinions are the opposite of the other members on a thing or two! OK, here goes: I prefer C. J. Cherryh to Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm utterly bored by Cherryh's Chanur series, and the "Fortress" books, too. My favorites are set in the Alliance-Union-Merchanter universe. I prefer the "Foreigner" books to the Mri trilogy, and I like both the "Riders" books. Hoorah for Signy Mallory! :-)

5/16/00 - Here are the books that the Third Thursday Reading Group (is that our name?) will be reading in the next stint (i.e. before the next potluck!)

4/26/00 - My travels to England used to result in major packing problems, as I tried to slip as many paperbacks into my single piece of luggage as possible. The height, I think, was one trip when I crammed 16 or 17 books into my metal-framed backpack...along with my clothes, of course.

Things were simplified in later years, when Waterstones, Blackwells and Dillons became my major UK book-sources, and they shipped books to the States. Now I find little to buy even in those fine bookstores - which I find disconcerting, I loved being able to browse the shelves and find four or five of interest almost immediately. Then again, I think this is because the books I want I can find imported to the states. So.... Still, I find it a loss somehow.

The one kind of book I do still keep an eye out for in England is "my life in between the wars" or "growing up during World War II", that sort of memoirs. An example is Blue Remembered Hills, by historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliffe. Another memoir is People Who Say Goodbye - do I have to dig it out to find an author?:-). Those "people", by the way, were young men during 1914-18 who visited the author's mother to solemnly say farewell. The author as a child came to assume that people who said goodbye would never return, as these young men were, of course, leaving for the Front.

My favorite British bookstore was (was) in the National Portrait Gallery. It was unlike any other museum shop I had seen. Besides postcards of the photos and paintings in the gallery, they sold biographies and collections of letters by the gallery subjects, and books by authors portrayed in their collection. For instance, I bought here a book of letters from Rudyard Kipling to his children, and also a wonderful book called James Barrie and the Lost Boys (more on that in the future!).

Then one year I found that the NPG bookstore had changed. It had become boring - like any other museum giftshop. They sold postcards and reproductions and art books and the like, but no longer sold the interesting collection of biographies and books related to the story of the people portrayed in the gallery. Why do we more art books, when you can buy them at the National Gallery around the corner?, and at any other art museum? The charming unexpectedness of their collection was gone.

I have been back to the NPG bookstore only once since. It had changed back towards what it once was -- a little. I'm almost afraid to try again!

Note on 8/22/00: the NPG has been greatly expanded, and the bookshop has, too. I'll go back to it now, to see if more of the unique flavor has returned!

3/12/00 - My older sister has a copy of Dean Marshall's The Long White Month. My brother and I have been trying to find another copy (or two) to no avail, and we've tried all the used book stores on the web. There is a copy in the Minneapolis Public Library, and one in the University of Minnesota library.

Priscilla is an orphan, who is being raised by "Aunt Millicent", actually her much older cousin. Priscilla must wear grey smocks, and have her hair in braids - because her name is old-fashioned - and her days are regimented: school, drawing lessons, French class, and so on. When Aunt Millicent has to have an operation, Priscilla is sent to live for a winter month with Cousin Susan, a writer who lives in a cabin in the woods. Susan expects her to be independent!, to make her own choices!, to entertain herself! And she learns she can be and do all those things. Along the way, Priscilla and the reader learn about birds: chickadees, juncoes, nuthatches, all those that "winter over" and how to feed them sunflowers, suet pudding, a complete bird banquet.

It's a lovely book, with charming illustrations. Why can't it be reprinted???

2/25/00 - During the 1980s I collected travel literature, quite an expensive hobby since the books were all lovely trade paperbacks! I generally disapprove of the type of narrative that depends upon mockery of the "natives", whether the natives are in the U.S. or elsewhere. My favorite ones on United States travel include Blue Highway by William Least Heat-Moon, and Mississippi Solo by Eddie Harris. BH strikes the right balance, I think, not apologizing for America's faults but without an axe to grind. MS is the story of an African-American man who travels from the source of the Mississippi to its mouth - it is excellent, and so is his follow-up, Native Stranger about his travels in Africa.

While I could go on to list many favorites, I want to pay particular tribute to Dervla Murphy. Her travels by bicycle, mule, horse ... curl my hair. She is an amazing person. Her titles include Eight Feet in the Andes, On A Shoestring to Coorg, In Ethiopia with a Mule, Muddling Through Madagascar. You might start with, indeed, her first book: Full Tilt, about bicycling from Ireland to India.

2/14/00 - I do read more than one book at a time, although partly that is in hope that I will become caught up in one of them. Sometimes it's a slog through two or three simultaneously (yawn). This week I am rereading George R. R. Martin's fantasy novel A Game of Thrones, which manages to be heroic fantasy with excellent characterization and a sense of politics - in other words, it's not about wizards and Words of Doom. Really. I'm rereading it in hopes that its sequel, A Clash of Kings, will come out in paperback soon. I think I have a while to wait.

When I returned from Italy this fall, I immediately bought copies of Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Cellini's Autobiography. I couldn't visit Florence and not buy these! The first volume of Vasari is my bedside-table book.

When I travel, I try to take something substantial along to read. Dickens is a good choice: Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend, and so on. For Italy I chose, first, a novel about Justinian - unfortunately it was about Justinian the Noseless rather than the Justinian of the Ravenna mosaics. Ah well. And I took Trollope's Doctor Thorne, of the Barchester Chronicles, a good read for airport and airplane.

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Last revised December 31, 2007.

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